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Wednesday, April 06, 2011

How do you stir it up?

I'm starting to get why so many of my author friends write in Starbucks. I tend to prefer the quiet of my home office because a) I talk to myself and my characters when I write, and b) I'm usually barefoot or maybe wearing slippers. But lately I've been reading through one of my older books, Truffles by the Sea (it will be an eBook soon), and finding myself laughing out loud. It's like visiting my past ~ so many of the things that I was into at the time made it into that book. Back then I kayaked more, talked with neighbors more, and walked around downtown more. Recently? Not so much. I've been doing a lot of editing and marketing lately, and know what I'm realizing? Sitting in a quiet office is boring. And who wants boring in a book?

So in the past few days, I drove to Venice Beach ~ twice, watched pre-teen girl play soccer, went to my friend's ranch in Ojai, and visited my wily baby nephews in the Valley. Explains why I've had a bad back for a few days, but oh so worth it. THIS is living. I tried to soak up more of the conversations around me, the quirks of the people (Haha, Mom, don't worry :), and the situations that occurred that show life in all its colorful glory.

My laptop is slow and quirky, so I doubt you'll find me in Starbucks writing any time soon, but I'm definitely planning to take more breaks from my oh-so quiet office to people watch. Cuz I have some writing to do :)

2 comments:

One way I stir it up is, taking a writing class. Listening to other writers about their process can be helpful. One suggested leaving chocolates in the desk drawer to help you look forward to sitting down and writing. Chocolates and writing, there's probably nothing more enticing to me.